Aaron Carter Clears Up the Infamous 9/11 Michael-Jackson-and-Macaulay-Culkin Limo Story

It has been almost 20 years since Aaron Carter first emerged into the public consciousness. If you've heard Carter's name lately, it's probably been for non-music related stories: bankruptcy, a stint in rehab, his recent endorsement of Donald Trump, or the occasional erratic and bizarre statement on Twitter. In short, it's the standard cautionary tale about the perils of childhood fame.

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But Carter, now 28 and poised to release his first album since 2002, LØVË, seems to have gotten his act together. Even stranger, the first snippet of new music we've heard, "Fool's Gold," sounds promising. The track, which he teased a few months back, is a far cry from the schoolyard novelty-rap he made his name on, showcasing his lilting falsetto and his self-taught production talents in its trap-pop beat.

We called Carter at home in Malibu, after he'd gotten back from a string of tour dates, to talk about his new music, bankruptcy, growing up, and, weirdly, 9/11.

ESQ: Tell me about the new music. Is "Fool's Gold" in keeping with the general style of the album?

Aaron Carter: That was a pre-production version you heard, but the song has completely evolved since that. "Fool's Gold" is a story about love, a current love-type situation I've been going through recently.

The genre, I call it like EDM-dub-trap. I produce it, I write it. I have a co-producer from Germany, his name is Arschtritt Lindgren. I have my team Fool's Gold, we're doing my whole project together. I fund it solely on my own, 100 percent, with no investors, and the bulk of the money I make goes back into the project. I put 100 percent—well, about 50 percent—of my capital back into it. I've always felt that I am my best investment.

It's kind of funny, because when I was 18 years old, I had the same idea. No one really understood making beats. I was producing music when I was doing that reality show House of Carters, and I sucked. I was terrible. But kids want to make beats, and they start off doing that and stop after awhile. Me, I didn't want to stop. I kept feeling like people would make fun of me or wouldn't think I was good enough, so I felt like I had something to prove. I always wanted to get better—I spent millions of dollars, probably over 2 million easily, on music gear. When I turned 18 years old, I took a big fraction of my trust fund, and I went to Guitar Center and spent a million dollars in one hour.

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Wow, that's a lot of money.

That's what I did. The reason why I got into beats was because I turned 18, my parents were my managers, and I got hit with $4 million in taxes. I got like 2 million in my trust fund. I was actually hoping for a lot more, but I don't even care. I was like, I'm not going to file for bankruptcy, I don't want to do that, it isn't my responsibility for something that happened to me when I was 11 or 12, because my parents didn't pay taxes, you know? And people know I've been doing music a long time. I grossed hundreds of millions of dollars before I even turned 18 years old. But I turned 18, I didn't have my mom and dad managing me any more, and I got hit with all these taxes, and it hindered me from getting a record deal or a label, or doing anything in music. So I kind of focused on being a producer. I said to myself, "I'm just going to keep producing music." No label wanted to sign me, and they couldn't sign me, because I had liens. Contractually, they would be obligated to take care of that debt and squash that before they even got into business with me. And to them, I wasn't worth $4 million.

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Is that all cleared up now?

What happened is, I stayed doing the beats and contemplated filing a bankruptcy. Pretty much the entirety of my adult life I've had this weighing me down. It's been a lot of stress because I couldn't really go out and make money. So I wasn't touring, making money, and I had no booking agent or promoters that wanted to book me or do anything like that. It was really hard to get anyone to believe in me.

So I went and I did this play called The Fantasticks. Right before that I did Dancing with the Stars, and that got me back on my feet a little bit. Then I kind of had a falling out after that, I ended up going to rehab, crashing down. The first night I did Dancing with the Stars I got served the papers. Fortunately, I was able to make some money off of that. I finally got to the point, after going to the Betty Ford Center for a month and getting my act together, I did The Fantasticks, an Off-Broadway production. It's very well known. Jerry Orbach was in it. It was very hard. No microphones. One of the smallest theaters in all of New York City. It was difficult because I had to go and I had to learn to be the man. I had this whole ensemble that wanted me to the be the star of the show and fill the house up. I stayed there for over 500 performances, eight shows a week. I made $90 a night. I made equity, $654 a week. Now at this point, the IRS is starting to lien my account.

A booking agent was sitting in the audience; he said, "Let's put you on tour." I was like, "I would love that, please!" We started off with 10 shows, 10 turned into 20, 20 turned into 70, 70 turned into 200 that year. I went from making $30,000 one year to the next year grossing $1.5 million. That was about three years ago. I finally had the opportunity to make enough money that I had to file for bankruptcy. I didn't want to for so long, to endure the public humiliation of bankruptcy. And I didn't really understand it. But now I could finally hire forensics accountants and attorneys. It cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars just to do the forensic auditing I had to to even file for bankruptcy.

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It's expensive to go bankrupt!

It's expensive to go bankrupt. If you want to get a Chapter 7, which is a full discharge and no debt. I was able to get that. I was also able to protect both of my parents from getting in a lot of trouble. But instead of that coming out in the media, what came out was Aaron Carter was broke. Yeah, I was broke. All the money I was making was being allocated to what I needed to do to start my life as an adult. I never got the opportunity to do that.

Do you get along with parents now? Is there animosity there?

No, not at all. I looked at it like, I think they raised me right. They made mistakes, and I look at it like, they were going through a big divorce at the time. There could've been stuff they didn't see. Instead of looking at it like, "Oh my god I hate you," I look at it like, "I love you. Thank for you giving me the opportunity to do what I do," because now look at what I'm doing. I'm doing this because of them.

Are you playing only new material or older stuff as well on tour?

I do a medley of like three songs: "I Want Candy," "Aaron's Party," and "Shaq," and then I focus on engaging with the audience, telling them who I am now and what I do, and I play the new music. Since I produce it and write it, it's so close to me and such a part of me. This is a side of me that I always wanted to show. And for me the only gratification I could possibly get 100 percent was when I would make a beat and hear the way it sounded. It's no different than a photographer taking a photo and being proud of the photo or you doing an article and being proud of it.

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Is it older fans or younger people? Who is the Aaron Carter fan now?

It's crazy, it's a plethora. I have such a young fan base. A lot of my fans are starting to have kids now too, and they get their younger kids into me too. Realistically, I was the first album for a lot of kids. Even 20 years ago, I had fans when I was 12 years old that were 4 or 5 years old. I had fans when I was 16 years old that were 4 years old.

Would you do anything different if you were just starting now? What would you tell young Aaron?

No, I wouldn't even talk to my younger self. The only thing I would say is, "Do you." Because you're gonna learn from your mistakes. You're going to make yourself a better man by learning from your mistakes and showing humility and really working hard at your craft and appreciating and loving the people that support you. Stick with that, and you'll be fine.

You're pretty active on Twitter. Do you think it's a good outlet for you, or do you think it can be unhealthy sometimes?

Me, personally, I'm a celebrity, so people don't know what it's like for us and how we deal and if we actually do pay attention to what people say. Even if it's somebody that has two followers. It doesn't matter how many followers they have, it's still one person that feels that way. And when you're an entertainer, that means trying to please people. You naturally want to please as many people as you can.

Does it bother you if people are dumping on you, or are you immune to it?

Absolutely. Especially if it's a derogatory, slandering, and demeaning way, damn right. You're putting out something that doesn't even make any sense, or something that I don't even do? But as a man, I'm like, you know what, I'm going to focus now on what I have to do and what my message is. And I am going to show the world a little bit of what I deal with, because that's what I deal with. I deal with hate and I deal with love. And I deal with naysayers and people who believe in me. And people who are fans of me and have little blip of me in their mind from a certain time period, and still think that I'm a little boy.

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But the thing is, I missed out on being able to show them any proper transition with me with music because of all the unfortunate things that happened. At least I can hopefully say in the future that it made me a better man, maybe a smarter man. I learned some tough lessons that could lead to me being a good father one day. I guess it's all about how you look at it. My brother Nick gave me a really great book—it was passed on to him from Kevin Richardson from Backstreet Boys. And it's called Why Some Positive Thinkers Get Powerful Results, a book written by Norman Vincent Peale, a motivational speaker in the '70s. It's really helped me and been embedded in my subconscious. So I always try to find positives in the negative.

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I read an interview the other day where you talked about the morning of 9/11, being with Michael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin in a limo in New York that morning. That must've been insane.

Michael and Macaulay weren't in the limo with me. I was opening up for Michael at Madison Square Garden on September 9 and 10. We all had to leave the morning of September 11 when the Trade Center happened. Michael had invited me to an amusement park with him and Macaulay. We were going to get on private jet and fly to the amusement park, just go hang out and have fun, and I had a separate limo taking me to a private airport. My mom and dad were getting on a commercial flight that morning. I was with my bodyguard at the time, my vocal coach, my tour manager, and the limo driver. We had a flat tire on the side of the road on the Hudson. I had never really stared at the towers before, but I remember being fascinated looking at them as a little kid.

I saw a plane acting mysterious. I said, "Everyone look, that plane gonna crash!" And they looked for a second, then started helping with the flat tire again. And I said, "It's gonna crash!" And boom! Hit the building. And I watched it with my own eyes.

So I presume you never got to go to the amusement park?

No. I watched that happen. They fixed the tire, and I said, "Take me to the airport to get my parents." And there was a weird service message I'd never heard on a cell phone. It was a weird message, and it freaked me out. I said, "Guys, that was a commercial airplane." They didn't believe me. We were watching the tower on the TV in the limousine on the way to the airport to find my parents. We couldn't get a hold of them, because everyone in New York City was on the phones. And then boom! Another plane hit when we were on the way to the airport.

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We get to the airport, and I hop on top of the limousine, and I'm shouting for my parents in a huge crowd of people, and they found me. So we got a rental and drove 29 hours down to the Florida Keys, where we lived.

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